Annemarie Dedek, PhD

Carleton University, The Ottawa Hospital Research Institute Department of Neuroscience, Mitacs Industrial Postdoctoral Research Fellow

Annemarie Dedek, PhD investigates molecular and cellular changes in the spinal cord that lead to the development of chronic pain.

Working with Dr. Mike Hildebrand at Carleton University and Dr. Eve Tsai at The Ottawa Hospital, Dedek has performed the first-ever patch clamp recordings on human spinal cord tissue and developed a novel translational human tissue model of chronic pain.  This unique achievement is a great leap forward for understanding human pain physiology. They are the only group in Canada using human spinal cord tissue, and one of only a handful of labs pursuing the endeavor worldwide. They hope that their human pain model will be applied widely as a preclinical validation method to help bridge the gap between basic science and clinical trials. In fact, they are actively collaborating with researchers in the US and Europe to leverage this model for even greater understanding of spinal physiology.